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1-->''Sing a song of sixpence,''\
2''A pocketful of rye''\
3''Four-and-twenty blackbirds''\
4''Baked in a pie.''
5
6Nursery rhymes. Full of rhyme and rhythm and odd images. Not so full of sense.
7
8-->''Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop''\
9''When the wind blows the cradle will rock''\
10''When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall''\
11''And down will come baby, cradle and all.''
12
13Nursery rhymes are a form of [[OralTradition oral folklore]] and overlap with children's songs, lullabies and {{Riddle}}s. They may be connected to ParlorGames. Counting-out rhymes are a subgroup.
14
15-->''Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man,''\
16''Bake me a cake as fast as you can.''\
17''Roll it and squash it and mark it with a B''\
18''And ''dash'' it in the oven for baby and me.''
19
20The English nursery rhymes specifically are connected with the name of Mother Goose, whence they are also called 'Mother Goose rhymes'. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose Mother Goose]] is an old folklore figure or stereotype -- an archetypal elderly country woman, who was originally interpreted as [[TheStoryteller a teller]], or mythical originator of {{fairy tale}}s; but her focus shifted to nursery rhymes in the late 18th century. She also figures in a nursery rhyme herself, and is the subject of a traditional {{pantomime}}. She is usually portrayed wearing a tall hat and shawl (the old Welsh peasant costume), except when she is an [[FunnyAnimal anthropomorphic goose]].
21
22-->''One, two, put on a shoe''\
23''Three, four, knock at the door''\
24''Five, six, pick up sticks''\
25''Seven, eight, lay them straight''\
26''Nine, ten, a big fat hen.''
27
28Characters from nursery rhymes, like Old King Cole, Humpty Dumpty, or Mother Goose herself are {{Public Domain Character}}s that may feature in all kinds of works. The writer may try to explain their rhymes -- often enough, with a {{parody}} origin.
29
30-->''Hey-diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle''\
31''The cow jumped over the moon''\
32''The little dog laughed to see such a sight.''\
33''And the dish ran away with the spoon.''
34
35Modern lore often attributes macabre and horrifying "origin stories" to nursery rhymes; the most widespread possibly being that "Ring Around the Rosy" [[note]]"Ring a Ring o' Roses" in Britain[[/note]] is a song about [[TheBlackDeath the plague]]. While that particular example is most likely {{Urban Legend|s}}, debate continues for others. The origins of most nursery rhymes are simply not known, and many are in all likelyhood nonsense rhymes that never made much sense. There are, however, more firmly rooted examples demonstrating that this can be TruthInTelevision. "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe", for instance:
36
37-->There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.\
38She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;\
39She gave them some broth without any bread;\
40Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
41
42Not only is the rhyme itself openly dark, but its second printed appearance[[note]] in 1797, the first printed appearance being in 1794, with predating references indicating that it existed as oral tradition long before that.[[/note]] documents an additional, even darker and stranger couplet. Its wording hints at a Shakespearean-era origin, and bolsters a suspicion among folklorists that it has a lost political or allegorical meaning as well:
43
44-->Then out went th' old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin,\
45And when she came back, she found 'em all a-loffeing[[note]]laughing uproariously[[/note]]
46
47NewerThanTheyThink also often applies to this, with people sometimes attributing much older meanings to nursery rhymes that are much more recent ("Pop Goes The Weasel" for example is thought to only be about 150 years old).
48
49Obviously, drawn upon for IronicNurseryTune. May also feature in a FracturedFairyTale or a FairyTaleFreeForAll. Often has RhymingTitle and/or features characters with RhymingNames. Compare the PlaygroundSong.
50----
51!!Examples
52
53[[foldercontrol]]
54
55[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
56* In ''Manga/BlackButler'', the main antagonist of the Noah's Ark Circus uses the name Tom the Piper's Son as his alias.
57* In ''Anime/GlitterForceDokiDoki'', Maya attempts to sing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to Dina to put her to sleep. Unfortunately, Maya is [[HollywoodToneDeaf a terrible singer]], and just makes Dina cry even louder.
58* In ''Anime/LegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon'', [[Franchise/LupinIII Lupin]]'s search for the MacGuffinLocation is hidden within an actual Nursery Rhyme; "How many miles to Babylon? Three-score miles and ten...". Lupin even lampshades it regarding its brilliance and figures out the code within the rhyme; the 70 miles mentioned in the rhyme refer to seven booby traps in the Tower of Babel's ruins protecting part of the titular MacGuffin.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Comic Books]]
62* Several nursery rhyme characters appear in ''{{ComicBook/Fables}}'' and even more in the spinoff ''JackOfFables''.
63* Creator/DCComics supervillain Solomon Grundy is named after a nursery rhyme; "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday..."
64[[/folder]]
65
66[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
67* In "Literature/MaidMaleen", the tower where Maleen was imprisoned inspired children to sing a nursery rhyme as they passed it.
68-->"Kling, klang, gloria.\
69Who sits within this tower?\
70A King's daughter, she sits within,\
71A sight of her I cannot win,\
72The wall it will not break,\
73The stone cannot be pierced.\
74Little Hans, with your coat so gay,\
75Follow me, follow me, fast as you may."
76* "Literature/LittleOtik": Before each meal, the titular monster sings a nursery rhyme in which it lists everything and everyone whom it has previously eaten.
77-->"I am an eater, and have eaten:\
78some grits from a saucepan,\
79a basinful of milk,\
80a loaf of bread,\
81my father and mother,\
82a girl with a wheelbarrow,\
83a peasant and a cart loaded with hay,\
84a swineherd and pigs,\
85a shepherd and his sheep,\
86and now will eat you too."
87[[/folder]]
88
89[[folder:Fan Works]]
90* ''Fanfic/LincolnsMemories'': [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Luna]], when she's between the ages of three and seven, frequently quotes nursery rhymes. Her first line in the series was her at age five saying, "Lincoln, Lincoln, pumpkin eater" about a baby Lincoln eating mashed pumpkin.
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
94* Alongside fairy tales, the ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' franchise has also adapted and parodied multiple characters from English-language nursery rhymes, [[FairyTaleFreeForAll who all coexist with each other and other traditional stories]]. In the main films, the Three Blind Mice are recurring characters and the Muffin Man is the baker who created the Gingerbread Man; in the spin-offs, ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots2011'' shows Little Boy Blue as a bully in Puss' orphanage, Jack and Jill as a feared couple of bandits, and Humpty Dumpty as an anthropomorphic egg and Puss' former best friend, while its sequel ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' shows Little Jack Horner as the vicious owner of a pie factory and crime lord who built a collection of smuggled magical artifacts after growing envious of fairy-tale characters for upstaging his nursery rhyme.
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
98* In ''Film/ChildrensPartyAtThePalace'', two nursery rhymes, "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Three Little Kittens" are referenced by Cruella de Vil and her chaperone.
99* The soundtrack of ''Film/CrossOfIron'' includes the German nursery rhyme "Hänschen klein", which is used {{ironic|Nursery Tune}}ally to produce SoundtrackDissonance with the {{war|is hell}}.
100[[/folder]]
101
102[[folder:Literature]]
103* ''Acalantopia - Proezas e Desventuras em um Brasil Encantado'' (Acalantopia[[note]]"Acalanto" in Portuguese means "lullaby"[[/note]] - Prowess and Misadventure in an Enchanted Brazil) is a Brazilian fantasy novel about a couple in 1920 trying to rescue and catalogue several magical creatures and elements from nursery rhymes, folk songs, tongue-twisters, lullabies, folk tales and myths from Myth/BrazilianFolklore. In specific, several beings from traditional Brazilian nursery rhymes are reinterpreted and illustrated, such as mafagafos (undescribed fictional birdlike animals from a popular tongue-twister), the Vaca Amarela ("Yellow Cow", from a rhyme used for taunting), and the potato from the ''Batatinha quando nasce Espalha a rama pelo chão'' ("little potato, when it sprouts, spreads its branches over the ground") rhyme.
104* ''Literature/AngelaNicely'': “Talent!” reveals that Angela used to dress as a teapot and sing “I’m a Little Teapot” when she was in nursery school. Later in the same story, Angela tells Laura to say, “Eenie meenie miny moe” when trying to hypnotise her.
105* In Creator/LewisCarroll's ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'', Alice meets up with Humpty Dumpty himself and Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Resulting in her being quite GenreSavvy: she knows that the king has promised to send all his horses and men to help Humpty Dumpty, and she awaits the crow with great anticipation, to break up the fight.
106* Creator/JRRTolkien wrote several "expanded" versions of nursery rhymes, filling in background to make them "reasonable". The idea is that these are the "original" versions, and what we remember today are just vague fragments that don't make any sense on their own. He attributed them to Bilbo and put one -- from "Hey diddle diddle" -- in Frodo's mouth in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
107** His rendition of "Hey, diddle diddle" is, in fact, a drinking song. [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations The musical]] does a rendition of it.
108* Jack Spratt of Jasper Fforde's ''Literature/NurseryCrime'' books is himself a nursery rhyme figure and runs across several others. (Though his ambit includes {{Fairy Tale}}s as well.)
109* Mrs. Wren in Creator/JohnCWright's ''Chronicles of Chaos'' makes use of rhymes as enchantments. Taffy ap Cyrmu, in the same work, takes his name from one: "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief."
110* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', nursery rhymes contain great secrets. One character jeers at the way ordinary people recite them to babies.
111* Creator/NeilGaiman's short story "The Case of the Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds" humorously places Mother Goose characters in a parody of crime noir, as "Little" Jack Horner, private eye, attempts to solve the murder of Humpty Dumpty.
112* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/DeepSecret'', one of the Deep Secrets of the title is hidden in a nursery rhyme, and the hero has to interpret it in order to save the LoveInterest's life.
113* Creator/AgathaChristie titled several novels after nursery rhymes. In ''Literature/APocketFullOfRye'', and more famously ''And Then There Were None'', victims are murdered in the manner of a nursery rhyme. {{Lampshaded}} in ''Five Little Pigs'', in which Poirot is downright irritated that the list of suspects is reminding him of a nursery rhyme ''again''.
114* In Creator/DevonMonk's ''Literature/MagicToTheBone'', Allie uses "Miss Mary Mack" as her mantra.
115* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': In one video, Roys and his friends, plus Ms. H, parody “The Wheels on the Bus”.
116* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' features a more adult version of Georgie Porgie called "Orgy Porgy." (Given kids in this world are encouraged to sexually experiment as young as six, this isn't surprising)
117-->''Orgy Porgy, Ford and fun\
118Kiss the girls and make them one\
119Boys at one, girls at peace\
120Orgy Porgy gives release.''
121[[/folder]]
122
123[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
124* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]'', Jo prevents her hypnosis by reciting nursery rhymes.
125* In ''Literature/LessonsForAPerfectDetectiveStory'' one episode (called "Nursery Rhyme Murder") evolves around murders following the lyrics of a television station's old nursery rhyme, which told the story of how ten little children died one by one. The fact there's ten verses upsets Tenkaichi because he can't stop the murderer until the rhyme is finished (as it's one of the conditions) but if he lets ten people die his popularity will tumble.
126[[/folder]]
127
128[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
129* In ''ComicStrip/FrankAndErnest'', when dealing with FairyTale characters, such figures as Little Bo-Peep also appear.
130* And ''ComicStrip/MotherGooseAndGrimm'' does it too, naturally.
131* ''ComicStrip/{{Mutts}}'' has a book club; a goose, one reader, resorts to nursery rhymes quite often.
132[[/folder]]
133
134[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
135* In ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'', Shadow's stories are often nursery rhymes with some modern jokes sprinkled in.
136* ''Series/MotherGooseTreasury'' might as well be Nursery Rhyme: The Show. It is all about the title character's interaction with Nursery Rhyme characters.
137* In ''Series/TheNoddyShop'', a fairy tale book based on a nursery rhyme will sometimes be read by the characters, with a modern version of the rhyme being played over it based on the episode's moral. For example, in "Lost and Found", [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010127001600/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s104.html a version of Little Bo Peep]] is shown in which Bo Peep and her sheep decide to split up to become famous, but then realize that it would be better if they did an act together.
138[[/folder]]
139
140[[folder:Theatre]]
141* Mother Goose often features in {{pantomime}}, albeit as a real woman ([[CrossCastRole honest]]) who [[RuleofPersonificationConservation has had children and happens to own]] [[PantomimeAnimal a very large goose]] [[note]] who'll probably lay a golden egg at some point during the performance[[/note]].
142* In ''Film/ChildrensPartyAtThePalace'', two nursery rhymes, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Three Little Kittens” are referenced by Cruella de Vil and her chaperone.
143* In Creator/DorothyLSayers' ''Theatre/TheEmperorConstantine'', Sayers used the legend that Helena was the daughter of King Coel -- the original "Old King Coel". She then used the rhyme in the opening act.
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:Toys]]
147* Two Toys/{{Lalaloopsy}} dolls, Tuffet Miss Muffet and Little Bah Peep, are based on the nursery rhymes "Little Miss Muffet" and "Little Bo Peep", respectively.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:Video Games]]
151* ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'' contains several nursery rhymes, all of them rather disturbing (and accurate foreshadowing).
152* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' has the very very very creepy singing of ''Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'' in it.
153* ''Mixed-Up Mother Goose'', a 1987 Sierra game in which the all the characters have lost their items, and you have to go through the game reuniting them.
154* In ''VideoGame/FateEXTRA'', the embodiment of nursery rhyme, mostly from Literature/AliceInWonderland, is a Caster-class Servant. A representative of children's love for the genre, the Moon Cell thus recognizes the genre itself as the "Hero of Children" and makes a Servant that mirroring its Master's adoration to it. Its Matrix; descriptions of identity, skills, and Noble Phantasm, and its dialogues are written in nursery rhyme.
155* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_9IyBzbyWQ This]] trailer for the upcoming addition to the Amnesia series, ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'', features an unsettling rendition of "This Little Piggy".
156* ''Videogame/{{Cursery}}'' are a series of games produced by Blue Tea Games that are a DarkerAndEdgier spin on the rhymes. "The Crooked Man" and "Humpty Dumpty" are the first ones.
157* In ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', Conker is forced to sing a nursery rhyme to Fangy the Raptor in order to hypnotize him.
158[[/folder]]
159
160[[folder:Western Animation]]
161* One episode of ''ComicStrip/USAcres'' from ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' had Aloysius Pig asking the cast to do some of these. This turns out to be easier said than done, as every nursery rhyme they try has offensive things in them. Towards the end, they get back at Aloysius by making up a rhyme about him.
162* Apart from the pop hits and Nick Jr. songs that play in ''WesternAnimation/FacesMusicParty'', remixes of popular nursery rhymes also play in each episode.
163* The 1938 WesternAnimation/{{Silly Symphon|ies}}y short "WesternAnimation/MotherGooseGoesHollywood" is a series of nursery rhymes with [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed celebrity caricatures]] in the main roles.
164[[/folder]]

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